It is amazing what one learns when one digs up the history behind holidays. I always knew of Memorial Day to be a holiday in which our military personnel who died while serving were honored. But little did I know the history behind it and how it evolved. I remember in high school, I couldn’t stand history – probably because I had less than enthusiastic teachers in that subject who pretty much just insisted on the memorization of dates and all, not really delving into the hows and whys and the relationships. It wasn’t until later on in my college career when I took a couple of history classes with much more enthusiastic professors that I really started to wake up to how interesting history can be. So, now it’s time for me to look into the history of our holidays – this post being about Memorial Day.

Memorial Day, a holiday observed in the United States on the last Monday in May, is now often seen as the unofficial start to summer. Many people see it as just a day off work, to make an extra long weekend. It actually is a holiday honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. Military. Originating in the years following the Civil War (becoming an official national holiday) and was first known as Decoration Day. Americans over the years have observed this holiday by attending memorial services, visiting cemeteries/memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades.

Because of the Civil War, which claimed many, many lives, the country’s first national cemeterieswere estsablished. The Civil War ended in the spring of 1865; by the late 1860s many Americans began holding springtime tributes to the countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

Waterloo, NY was established in 1966 as the official birthplace of Memorial Day – it first celebrated this holiday on May 5^th, 1866. On May 5^th, 1868, General John A, Logan called for a nationwide day of rememberence later on in the month and called it Decoration Day. He chose May 30^th due to it not being the anniversary of any particular battle during the Civil War.

Many northern states held commemorative events and by 1890 many had made Decorartion Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I. Confederate Memorial Day, still celebrated in several states, are on separate days still – for instance this year (2020), it was celebrated on April 26^th in Florida, on April 27^th in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi and on May 11^th in parts of South Carolina.

While Memorial Day (Decoration Day) was originally meant to honor those fallen in the Civil War, the US found itself in major conflicts in the 20^th and the 21^st centuries (WWI, WWII, The Vietnam War, The Korean War as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With these conflicts, the holiday evolved into one commemorating American military personnel who died in all wars.

For many years it continued to be celebrated on May 30^th, but in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act (which went into effect in 1971) and thus this holiday was to officially be celebrated on the last Monday in May. The same law also made the holiday a federal holiday.

I hope you find this little bit of information to be helpful. It is my plan to give little bits of historical and cultural tidbits on our federal holidays.